What Is the Double Goddess?V. NobleThe Double Goddess is an ancient
icon with luminous meaning for contemporary women, expanding on the single
images that have prevailed in prior considerations of the Goddess.
Among the numerous female figures important in the ancient world appear
many twin figures of two women as well as symbolic dual female representations
such as the Double Axe, birds, lions, leopards, and snakes. I see
these Double Goddess figures as profoundly representational of the whole
yin-yang female biological cycle and its shamanistic relationship to life
on this planet, human evolution, and the development of civilization.

The long and rich heritage
of Double Goddess figurines and painted images reflect the organic cycles
of nature that informed the ancient Goddess religion, archetypally expressed
through the body of every woman as the repeating alternation between ovulation
and menstruation. These two aspects of the feminine are iconographically
depicted in the multivalent and widespread image of two divine women, expressing
the dual ples of nature: death and life, dark and light.

The image of the Double Goddess
is a vital missing piece for modern women, as it graphically portrays our
exquisite and unique bipolar existence in a positive, healthy way.

The Double Goddess reflects
female
autonomy, offering very important icons for modern women trying to
find again (re-member) our ancient, integral sense of self and wholeness.

The innate back-and-forth mystery
of ovulation and menstruation, unique to our species and magically ( magnetically)
synchronized with the cycles of the Great Goddess Herself in Her dual planetary
aspects as Earth and Moon, and the mythic forces of life and death.

The Double Goddess represents
the idea of female sovereignty in a context of ancient female yogic and
shamanistic practices and principles that formed the organizing structure
of most ancient cultures in the world before patriarchy.These double images as well
as the aried mythologies of Double Queens found in different parts of the
ancient worldsuggest that the icons represent
a female lineage (matrilinearity) in the form of a continuous "storied
tradition" of femalesovereignty.

We'll probably never know if
any of the Double Goddess images from ancient civilizations were meant
by their creators to represent physical love between women. Or, more
accurately, we may not ever be able to prove that such a likely contention
is true. Certainly some Double Goddesses are portrayed in such intimate
ways that contemporary scholars discussing them have become tongue tied
or shy about what they are seeing. Some double figures show two separate
women in significant intimate contact, embracing or wearing a shawl around
their shoulders or a girdle around their hips, which may indicate physical
same sex love.

Lesbians who have shied away from the Goddess
movement because of its largely unconscious, but profoundly heterosexist
bias, can relax into the knowledge that a lineage exists, going back to
the beginnings of human civilization, sanctioning female to female relationship
as the original, matriarchal bond and a model of community leadership.
This model has mostly been ignored by mainstream culture, even though it
is a truism at this point in history that lesbians were and are the vanguard
of the women's movement. Significantly for our discussion, much of
this impact was made through the influence and productivity of lesbians
couples, in a contemporary version of our ancient Amazon Queens.

This model can be seen in the
tantric counterparts, Athena and Artemis. Athena, credited with inventing
all of civilization's arts, became Goddess of the city-state, crafts, and
culture, and Artemis remained Goddess of wild nature. Both remained
"virgin" neither was willing to relate romantically with men and both were
connected with Amazons.Rarely does a scholar mention
the all to obvious likelihood that either or both of these Goddess types
might have found their sexual fulfillment with other women. Artemis,
the shaman-priestess, might naturally discover her romantic partner in
Athena, the physical warrior and head of state. Instead, both
are treated not as if their Virgin Goddess status referred to the intactness
of a woman belonging to herself, but rather as a kind of insular chastity
that repudiated sexuality altogether.

With the mass of recorded history,
mythology, and artifactual evidence, the existence of Amazon Queens and
warrior women can hardly be contested, yet it is consistently denied, ignored,
and erased by contemporary academic scholars. Amazon warrior women
exemplify female resistance movements everywhere. They evoke the
wild women who,like Miranda Shaw's eternally
transgressive Indian yoginis, " always speak truthfully and are proud of
their strength;women whose minds are powerful
and energetic; women who delight in shrewish behavior and speak boastfully;
women who are fearless, revel in their own ferocity, and women who derive
pleasure from the fact that they are untamable."The warrior woman stands her
ground in the physical world, like an archer or martial artist.The priestess fights her battle
on the invisible plane, using the tools of her trade to support the powerful
working of her focused mind. Together, in the tradition of Amazons
from every time and place, they fight back in an ongoing refusal to allow
the world to be destroyed.